(aka 'Warui yatsu
hodo yoku nemuru' or 'The Bad Sleep Well' or 'The Rose in
the Mud' or 'The Worse You Are, the Better You Sleep')

Japan 1960

Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) is a grieving son seeking revenge for the
'suicide' of his father. By assuming a new identity he rises through the ranks
of the Public Corporation and cynically marries the President's daughter to
better infiltrate the company and expose the corrupt practice that was
responsible for his father's death. However, as Koichi falls in love with his
wife, disaster looms.

A tense re-working of Hamlet (adapted from a novel by Ed McBain) is a biting
exposť of the corruption and politics of greed at the heart of Japanese
business. Beautifully photographed in ravishing black and white Tohoscope.

Leisurely paced, bitterly ironic, the film employs an arid visual style, with
hard-edged black and white images of Tokyo that perfectly complement its
portrayal of corruption in high places.

• A 36-minute documentary on the making of The Bad Sleep Well, created as
part of the Toho Masterworks series
• Original theatrical trailer
• 16-page Liner notes essays by film scholar Richard Combs and
screenwriter-director Michael Almereyda

DVD Release Date: January 10th, 2006Keep Case
Chapters: 32

Comments:

ADDITION: Criterion - Region 1- NTSC Jan 06': Most obviously the BFi is
cropped on top, bottom and the left edge which we may never have been
aware had Criterion not released this title. Framing is most important
in certain directors work - and Kurosawa is one of them. It appears that
BFI have done some brightness boosting, again only really noticeable
next to the Criterion (which may be minutely less sharp). Another flaw
in the BFI that I did not note in our initial review is that in scene
shifts - in usually the last frame - either prevalent damage is noted or
a heavy brightness boost.

The 36
minute documentary on the 'Making of..." is very good and the liner
notes booklet included on the Criterion is likewise excellent.

Both issues look
quite good. Progressively transferred in widescreen scope (although with
BFI's cropping it offers a substantially different ratio),
both are anamorphic and tight to the frame. But the Criterion is
superior. It has richer black levels, less damage, the above noted
cropping on the BFI, better extras and an alternate subtitle translation
that I assume is also advanced above the PAL release. Criterion continue
to show there domination of the DVD production market. We strongly
recommend the Criterion!

*****

I had seen
this Kurosawa film as I own the Mei Ah (see below) DVD many years
ago. I believe it was the shorter international version of the film. I
won't even bother fully comparing as it was a
ridiculously poor transfer (brightened, cropped on all 4 sides etc.
etc.). The film is another of Kurosawa's best and
BFI have done true justice with this stupendous image
and providing us with the original uncut version. Contrast, sharpness,
grey-scales are all excellent! Very minor speckles are occasionally
noticed.

Subtitles are up to BFI's high
standard and I
have always loved their menus - these are super widescreen. Although digital extras are pretty much
standard filler
the 8-page liner notes booklet is gorgeous with some good reading
(excerpt of ‘Kurosawa on Kurosawa’ from Sight and Sound, Autumn
1964) and beautiful
photos. I am very happy with this package and we strongly
recommend. out
of